Temporal reliability of estimates from contingent valuation

In 1992 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) convened a panel of prominent social scientists to assess the reliability of natural resource damage estimates derived from contingent valuation (CV). The panel recommended that ''time dependent measurement noise should be reduced by averaging across independently drawn samples taken at different points in time.'' In this paper we examine the temporal reliability of CV estimates. Our findings, using a CV instrument designed to measure willingness to pay for a program to protect prince William Sound, Alaska, from future oil spills, exhibited no significant sensitivity to the timing of the interviews.